While preparing Sunday morning biscuits and gravy, I stepped away from the pallid protestations of Sunday Morning talk shows and ventured into the thicket with Glen Beck. Yes he is a deep right wing yahoo, but I wanted to hear some words about the new President without the usual cast of worthless, empty suits.
And for the 1/2 to an hour I listened, he delivered. Point by point, he and his panel used commonly available facts and called all the assertions of Trump and his spokespeople lies. Out right lies. Callers would dial up and try to justify the statements and they wouldn’t have it. And they saw no real reason to lie about crowd size or any thing else at this time. It didn’t matter but Trump and team couldn’t help themselves.
Next segment was making fun of left wing celebrities, Paltrow was the convenient target (and jeeeez, what a target). Then the women’s marches.
And there they had a point. Some of them were worthy of ridicule. Silly signs and vagina hats. They have been the talk of the country. I have heard of that from co-workers. One commented that Madonna made a career out of acting like a whore she shouldn’t be surprised if men (Trump) treated women like one. I may not agree with that sentiment but it does resonate outside Hollywood and NYC.
Anyway, I think the women’s march did not achieve much because it was portrayed as not serious. Costumes, silly signs, a parade like atmosphere. The civil rights marches of the 60s and the anti war marches were taken seriously as the people in them were serious. They dressed in serious Sunday or business clothing. The spokespeople used calm measured tones in their arguments. Citing moral and civil law. For the anti war protests, the dress was different but limited fooling around. Once again, the spokespeople were often (not always) not shrill or over the top, presented their case well, etc…. When not, it just gave ammunition to the forces of war and oppression; the country recoiled and we got Nixon.
In both instances, control was attempted on the deportment and content of the marchers; showing the nation they are serious people.
Many may not like it but image matters. Acting like you are in a gay pride parade, dreaming up funny/disrespectful signs or dressing like a Sunday hike in the woods may make sense to you, but not to the people you want to influence and bring to your side. All you do is provide ammo for the right wing’s derision and scorn from the rest of the country.
If you think Trump and his team attaining positions of power is a serious problem, then act like its serious when opposing it. The rest of the country will then be inclined to listen and you couldn’t be dismissed as “typical liberal out of touchers”
Ridge